Systems and methods for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multi-utility environment

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multi-utility region. The system and methods may include sensing magnetic fields upon moving a magnetic field sensing locating device over a multi-utility region comprising a plurality of buried utilities. The sensed magnetic fields may be used to identify a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to one or more buried utilities. Based on these location data points, a plurality of clusters may be generated where each cluster may include a set of location data points sharing common characteristics. The generated clusters may exhibit one or more patterns which may be identified and subsequently utilized for classifying the clusters to uniquely identify the buried utilities.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multiutility region, the method comprising:
 Sensing, with a locator having two or more antenna nodes each including nested orthogonal antenna coils, AC (alternating current) magnetic fields upon moving the locating device over a multi-utility region comprising a plurality of buried utilities, wherein the AC magnetic fields are generated from currents flowing in the utilities: 
 identifying utility data pertaining to the plurality of buried utilities from the sensed magnetic fields, wherein the utility data comprises a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to at least one of the buried utilities and one or more characteristics of the at least one of the buried utilities; 
 generating a plurality of clusters based on the identified location data points, wherein each of the clusters includes a set of location data points sharing common characteristics; identifying one or more patterns exhibited by each of the plurality of clusters; and classifying the clusters, based on the one or more patterns, to uniquely identify the buried utilities. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising correlating the location data points in the clusters, spatially and in a time domain, based at least on timestamps associated with the location data points, to trace location of the uniquely identified buried utilities. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , further comprising mapping the traced location of the uniquely identified buried utilities on a geographical map of the multi-utility region. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generating comprises applying a k-means clustering algorithm on the identified location data points to generate the plurality of clusters. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sensed magnetic fields include magnetic fields emitted from the plurality of buried utilities and from one or more buried objects other than the buried utilities. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein identifying the utility data comprises distinguishing the magnetic fields emitted from the plurality of buried utilities from magnetic fields emitted from the one or more buried objects based on at least one of a magnitude of the magnetic fields, gradients in a horizontal direction of the magnetic fields, and an angle of elevation of the magnetic fields. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating a cluster quality metric for the plurality of clusters, and utilizing the cluster quality metric and the one or more patterns to uniquely identify each of the buried utilities. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising sampling the sensed magnetic fields at a predefined sampling rate. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the common characteristics include one or more of substantially same underground depth, orientation, alignment, and placement relative to other objects. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the patterns include one or more of a frequency spectrum, a power spectrum, a harmonics pattern, a rebroadcast frequencies pattern, and a spectral signature. 
     
     
       11. A system for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multiutility region, the system comprising:
 two or more antenna nodes each including two or more nested orthogonal antenna coils for sensing AC (alternating current) magnetic fields emitted from a plurality of buried utilities and provide antenna output signals corresponding to the sensed magnetic fields; 
 a receiver circuit having a receiver input to receive the antenna node output signals, an electronic circuitry to process the received antenna node output signals, and a receiver output to provide receiver output signals corresponding to the received magnetic field signals; and 
 a processing unit, including one or more processing elements, coupled to the receiver output to receive the receiver output signals, and further coupled to: 
 a location identification module to process the receiver output signals and identify utility data pertaining to the plurality of buried utilities from the receiver output signals, wherein the utility data comprises a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to at least one of the buried utilities and associated characteristics of the at least one of the buried utilities; and 
 a utility classification module to receive the location data points, generate a plurality of clusters each including a set of location data points sharing common characteristics, and classify the clusters, based on one or more patterns exhibited by the clusters, to uniquely identify each of the buried utilities. 
 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the location data points are associated with timestamps based on which the location data points in the clusters are correlated with each other to trace location of the uniquely identified buried utilities. 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 12 , wherein the traced location is one of an optimized location of each of the buried utilities and one or more probable locations of each of the buried utilities. 
     
     
       14. The system of  claim 12 , wherein each of the uniquely identified buried utility and corresponding traced location is mapped on a geographical map of the multi-utility region for display on a user electronic device coupled to the magnetic field sensing locating device. 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the clusters are generated based on a k-means clustering algorithm. 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the utility classification module is configured to generate a cluster quality metric indicative of quality of differentiation between the clusters, and classify the clusters based on the cluster quality metric and the one or more patterns to uniquely identify each of the buried utilities. 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the common characteristics include one or more of substantially same underground depth, orientation, alignment, and placement relative to other objects. 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the patterns include one or more of a frequency spectrum, a power spectrum, a harmonics pattern, a rebroadcast frequencies pattern, and a spectral signature. 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the sensed magnetic fields include magnetic fields emitted from the plurality of buried utilities and from one or more buried objects other than the buried utilities. 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 19 , wherein the location identification module is configured to distinguish the magnetic fields emitted from the plurality of buried utilities from magnetic fields emitted from the one or more buried objects based on at least one of a magnitude of the magnetic fields, gradients in a horizontal direction of the magnetic fields, and angle of elevation of the magnetic fields, and eliminate the magnetic fields emitted from the one or more buried objects to identify the utility data pertaining to the buried utilities. 
     
     
       21. The system of  claim 11 , wherein the antenna node comprises at least one of a dodecahedral antenna node comprising twelve antenna coils and a gradient antenna node comprising two or more antenna coils. 
     
     
       22. The system of  claim 11 , further comprising one or more rangefinder devices, associated with the magnetic field sensing locating device, to measure above ground relative distance between at least one reference object and the buried utility, wherein the distance information obtained from the one or more rangefinder devices is utilized to align the buried utility and traced location of the buried utility on a geographical map of the multi-utility region. 
     
     
       23. The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a mark reader device, associated with the magnetic field sensing locating device, to detect and read a pre-existing electronic mark associated with the buried utility, wherein information obtained from reading the pre-existing electronic mark is utilized to trace location of the buried utilities. 
     
     
       24. A system for uniquely identifying and mapping buried utilities in a multi-utility region, the system comprising:
 one or more magnetic field sensing locating devices including one or more of vehicle-mounted magnetic field sensing locating devices and/or hand-carried magnetic field sensing locating devices, each of the plurality of magnetic field sensing locating devices comprising: 
 two or more antenna nodes each including two or more nested orthogonal antenna coils for sensing AC (alternating current) magnetic fields emitted from a plurality of buried utilities and providing antenna output signals corresponding to the sensed magnetic fields; 
 a receiver circuit to receive and process antenna node output signals to provide receiver output signals corresponding to the received magnetic field signals; and 
 a processing unit coupled to the receiver output to receive the receiver output signals, and to a location identification module to process the receiver output signals, and identify utility data pertaining to the plurality of buried utilities from the receiver output signals, wherein the utility data comprises a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to at least one of the buried utilities, and associated characteristics of the at least one of the buried utilities; and 
 a remote server communicatively coupled to the one or more magnetic field sensing locating devices, the remote server comprising a utility classification module to receive the location data points identified by the plurality of magnetic field sensing locating devices, generate a plurality of clusters each including a set of location data points sharing common characteristics, identify one or more patterns exhibited by each of the clusters, and classify the clusters based on the patterns to uniquely identify and locate each of the buried utilities. 
 
     
     
       25. The system of  claim 24 , further comprising one or more positioning devices operably coupled to the one or more magnetic field sensing locating devices to convert the location information indicated by the location data points into an absolute position capable of being represented according to a universal coordinate system. 
     
     
       26. The system of  claim 24 , wherein the location data points are associated with timestamps based on which the location data points in the clusters are correlated with each other to trace location of the uniquely identified buried utilities. 
     
     
       27. The system of  claim 26 , wherein each of the uniquely identified buried utilities and corresponding traced locations is mapped on a geographical map of the multi-utility region for display on one or more user electronic devices coupled to corresponding one or more of magnetic field sensing locating devices.